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User blog:Mr.Robbo/New Civilization
All of the civilizations that I have created so far on this wiki have been high-tech, multi-species civilizations, so I think it's about time I designed a low-tech, single species civilization. I'm still in the planning stage at the moment, but plan to have it on the wiki by Guy Fawkes Night. I'll be using this blog post to display photographs of the planning sketches I make, any advice would be welcome. Also, I have no scanner, and draw very lightly (in pencil; I despise pens), so I apologise for the poor quality of the images, and do not expect you to be able to read the notes. Points I plan for the home planet to orbit a red dwarf star. It will be tidally locked with about twice the gravity and three times the atmospheric pressure of Earth. Due to rainstorms thrown out by a permanent 'subsolar hurricane', the majority of the most diverse regions will consist of swamps and large river deltas. Draft Ideas Idea 1 My original plan actually started out as a heron-like creature, hunting fish. I gave it an extra pair of legs and a more horizontal body posture to spread out the weight distribution under the higher gravity. I also decided that most large-scale life on this planet will have evolved from parallels of the jawless fish found in the early oceans of Earth. In the end, the creature looks more like a horse than a heron, though it is still only about 1.4 metres in length. Note that there are 10 limbs in total; 4 legs, 2 arms, 2 wings, 2 vestigal wings. I'm guessing that the creature would have a weight of about 63kg. Presuming that it has a similar wing structure to a pterosaur, a wingspan of 535cm would be required (I did the maths after the sketches). Interestingly, flight could be easier on high-gravity planets, if the high gravity results in a higher atmospheric pressure, because the wings act against a denser medium than on Earth, countering the effects of the higher gravity. Idea 2 I based the above on a heron because it is a predator found in swamps (a similar environment to the home planet of this civilization); predators are most likely to develop sapience because they are nearly always more intelligent than prey. Another predator found in rivers and swamps on Earth is members of the crocodilia order, which is the starting point for this possibility. While Idea 1 copes with higher gravity by reducing bodyweight to meet body strength, Idea 2 increases body strength to meet body weight. It would be a lot stronger and tougher, but less flexible, than Idea 1. Alas, I think that this idea is a less likely candidate for sapience, as a big, muscular body requires more energy to run than a light, nimble body. This leaves less energy for fuelling a large brain. Also, if crocodilia on Earth are anything to go by (which have evolved little over millions of years), there isn't much evolutionary pressure for sapience in this idea. Environment A quick low-down on the planetary environment. The planet is tidally locked with a day-side (subsolar) and night-side (antisolar) hemisphere. There are no days or seasons. The orbit takes just 60 Earth days around the cool red dwarf sun. There are two continents, the subsolar continent (seen here) and the barren antisolar continent, separated by a band of ocean called the Twilight Ruff. Constant solar exposure has creted a permanent 60% to 80% cloud cover on the subsolar hemisphere, and reasonably strong winds circulate the atmosphere to result in an average temperature difference of only a bit more than 30 degrees Celcius between the two hemispheres. Due to the constant cloud cover and higher erosion caused by a higher gravity and stronger todal forces from the closer sun, much of the subsolar hemisphere is covered with windy swamps and wetlands. Category:Blog posts